Image info A section of adult bone marrow with their vasculature labelled using a VE-Cadherin-tomato reporter and FITC soluble waste. The blue is a DAPI counterstain to see the whole marrow. Associate Professor Susie Nilsson, PhD.

You are here

Nilsson group

Primary tabs

Primary tabs

The Nilsson group is involved in a number of research projects that focus on understanding haemopoietic stem cells – the stem cells responsible for the production of blood and immune cells.

Haemopoietic stem cells are a very important part of the body as they are constantly renewing blood, creating billions of new blood cells each day. They are located in the bone marrow, which is the flexible tissue found on the inside of most bones.

Research

The main objective of the group’s research is to characterise the microenvironment in which blood stem cells reside. The group studies blood stem cells at a cellular and molecular level, and analyses how the stem cells develop into new blood cells.

Learning more about normal and diseased stem cells will lead to better prevention, clinical diagnosis and treatment. This will ultimately improve human health. For example, people with cancer might have better outcomes if researchers can improve bone marrow transplantation by finding new ways to replace normal cells destroyed during anticancer therapy. Essentially, better bone marrow transplantation will allow higher doses of chemotherapy or radiation to be given, which will be a more effective form of treatment.

Hyaluronan is synthesised by primitive hemopoietic cells, participates in their lodgement at the endosteum following transplantation and is involved in the regulation of their proliferation and differentiation in vitro.